A recent publication by Dr. Roemer evaluated the diagnostic performance of standard MRI for osteophyte assessment using CT as a reference. Altogether 1332 locations were evaluated on MRI and CT in 18 locations per knee joint.

The study could show that MRI underestimates presence and size of osteophytes in all three knee compartments. However, a high degree of sensitivity was observed particularly for osteophyte detection in the medial compartment, which is commonly the compartment of relevance in clinical DMOAD trials, reflecting that MRI is adequately suited to detect osteophytes that commonly define structural disease.

CT may be helpful particularly regarding assessment of small osteophytes in early disease due to its higher sensitivity of osteophyte detection.

Please find full study at: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1ggy23npMrYMBq